ExxonMobil Says Climate Change Is Manageable

ExxonMobil's CEO, Rex Tillerson, admits that climate change is real and caused by burning fossil fuels, but that we, as humans, can easily adapt to these changes.

As human beings as a — as a — as a species, that's why we're all still here. We have spent our entire existence adapting, OK? So we will adapt to this. Changes to weather patterns that move crop production areas around — we'll adapt to that. It's an engineering problem, and it has engineering solutions. And so I don't — the fear factor that people want to throw out there to say we just have to stop this, I do not accept.

I do believe we have to — we have to be efficient and we have to manage it, but we also need to look at the other side of the engineering solution, which is how are we going to adapt to it. And there are solutions. It's not a problem that we can't solve.

I agree that the key to our success as a species has been adaptability. We biologically and culturally evolved to be a highly adaptable animal. But anatomically modern humans, the current masters of the animal kingdom, have only been around for 250,000 years. And in that short of amount time, we have had agriculture for 15,000 years. And in that short amount of time, civilizations for 5,000 years. And in that tiny time, civilizations that burn fossil fuels for 300 years.